1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for driving a plasma display panel (PDP) and more particularly to the method for driving a PDP which performs AC (Alternating Current)-type matrix display.
The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-332538 filed on Nov. 15, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A PDP is classified, from a structural point of view, into two types, one being a DC (Direct Current)-type PDP in which an electrode is exposed in a discharge gas and another being an AC-type PDP in which an electrode is covered by a dielectric and is not exposed directly in the discharge gas. Moreover, the AC-type PDP is further classified into a memory-operated type AC PDP which uses a memory function based on a charge accumulating action of a dielectric and a refresh-operated type AC PDP which does not use the memory function.
General configurations of the AC-type PDP and a conventional method for driving the same are described below.
FIG. 15 is an exploded perspective view illustrating configurations of a PDP 20, one of the conventional AC-type PDPs, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-272948.
The PDP 20 has a front-side insulating substrate 1a and a rear-side insulating substrate 1b. 
On the front-side insulating substrate 1a are arranged a plurality of scanning electrodes 9 and a plurality of sustaining electrodes 10 in parallel to each other in a manner that each of the scanning electrodes 9 pairs up with a corresponding one of the sustaining electrodes 10.
The scanning electrodes 9 and sustaining electrodes 10 each are made up of a bus electrode 3 adapted to ensure electrical conductivity and a main discharge electrode 2 to cause discharge to occur. In the PDP shown in FIG. 15, as the main discharge electrode 2, a transparent electrode made of ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) or SnO2 (Tin Dioxide) is used not to cause transmittance to be lowered. The scanning electrode 9 and sustaining electrode 10 are covered by a dielectric layer 4a. A protecting film 5 made of magnesium oxide or a like is deposited on the dielectric layer 4a to protect the dielectric layer 4a from damages caused by discharge.
On the rear-side insulating substrate 1b, a plurality of data electrodes 6 are arranged in a manner that each of the data electrodes 6 intersects each of a plurality of pairs of the scanning electrodes 9 and the sustaining electrodes 10 at right angles.
The data electrode 6 is covered by a dielectric layer 4b. On the dielectric layer 4b is formed a plurality of ribs 7 to secure discharge space and to partition a cell.
On a surface of the dielectric layer 4b on which no ribs 7 are formed and on a side of each of the ribs 7 is applied a coating of a phosphor 8 used to convert an ultraviolet ray being produced by discharge to a visible light. By painting each discharging cell red (R), green (G), or blue (B) using the phosphor 8 (these red, green, and blue colors being called “three primary colors”), color display is made possible.
Space being put between the front-side insulating substrate la and the rear-side insulating substrate 1b and being partitioned off by the rib 7 is filled with a discharge gas in a sealed manner. As the discharge gas, for example, helium, neon, or xenon, or a mixed gas of these gases is used.
FIG. 16 is a plan view illustrating a PDP 20 of FIG. 15 viewed from a side of a display surface.
As shown in FIG. 16, the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10 are arranged in parallel to each other in a row direction and in a manner that the scanning electrode 9 pairs up with the sustaining electrode 10. A gap occurring between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10 is called a “discharge gap 12”. In the discharge gap 12, horizontal discharge (surface discharge) occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and sustaining electrode 10.
Next, readiness of occurrence of discharge (discharging probability) is described.
To cause discharge occur between the electrodes within a cell, it is necessary to apply a voltage exceeding a discharge threshold value. Some time is required before discharge occurs since a voltage is applied between the electrodes. This time is called “discharge delay time”.
This discharge delay time is determined as a value of probability based on various parameters of a PDP. Out of them, an important index includes a density such as charged particles, metastables, or a like within discharged space. These charged particles and metastables are called “priming particles” collectively. Occurrence of these particles increases readiness of occurrence of discharge, that is, discharge probability.
Next, discharging operations of a selected display cell are explained.
When a pulse voltage exceeding a discharge threshold value is applied between the scanning electrode 9 and the data electrode 6 within each display cell to cause discharge to be started, positive and negative charges are attracted, in a manner to correspond to a polarity of the pulse voltage, on surfaces of the dielectric layers 4a and 4b, thus causing charges to be accumulated. A polarity of an equivalent internal voltage caused by the accumulation of charges, that is, of a wall voltage becomes reverse to that of the pulse voltage. Due to this, as the discharge progresses, an effective voltage in the display cell is lowered and even if the pulse voltage is held at a specified level, discharge cannot be maintained and finally the discharge comes to stop.
When discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the data electrode 6, if a voltage being at a level being more than a specified level has been applied between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10, discharge occurred between the scanning electrode 9 and the data electrode 6 triggers discharge to also occur between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10 and, as in the case of discharge between the scanning electrode 9 and the data electrode 6, charges are accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a in a manner so as to counter voltages having been applied at that time with charges thereon.
When a sustaining discharge pulse being a pulse voltage having a same polarity as a wall charge is applied between the scanning electrode 9 and sustaining electrode 10, since the wall voltage is superimposed as an effective voltage on the sustaining discharge pulse, even if a voltage amplitude of the sustaining discharging pulse is small, the discharge threshold value is exceeded, as a result, causing discharge to occur. Therefore, by continuously and alternately applying a sustaining discharging pulse between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10, discharge can be maintained. This function is called a “memory function”.
Next, a method for driving a memory-operated AC-type PDP 20 is described by referring to FIG. 17. FIG. 17 is a voltage waveform diagram showing waveforms of voltages to be applied to various kinds of electrodes in the conventional method for driving the PDP 20.
A voltage is individually applied to each of the scanning electrodes 9 and the data electrodes 6 and a voltage having a same waveform is applied to all the sustaining electrodes 10. In FIG. 17, a mark “Si” shows a waveform of a voltage to be applied to a scanning electrode 9 to be scanned by the i-th scanning operation, a mark “C” shows a waveform of a voltage to be applied to the sustaining electrode 10, and a mark “Dj” shows a waveform of a voltage to be applied to the data electrode 6 placed in the j-th order.
As shown in FIG. 17, one period for a basic driving of a PDP is made up of an initializing period during which a state of a cell is initialized and the PDP is put in readiness for occurrence of discharge, a scanning period during which a cell to be used for display is selected, and a sustaining period during which the cell selected during the scanning period is made to be emitted.
First, during the initializing period, a sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a is applied to all the scanning electrodes 9 to cause erasing discharge to occur in order to erase wall charges having been accumulated by the sustaining discharge pulse before then.
The erasing operation here represents not only erasing of all wall charges but also adjustment of amounts of wall charges to cause succeeding pre-discharge, writing discharge, and sustaining discharge to smoothly occur.
Then, a pre-discharging pulse 30b is applied to all the scanning electrodes 9 to cause discharge to forcedly occur in all the display cells and causes them to emit light due to discharge.
Furthermore, a pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c is applied to all the scanning electrodes 9 to cause erasing discharge to occur and to erase wall charges accumulated by application of the pre-discharging pulse 30b. The erasing operation here represents not only erasing of all wall charges but also adjustment of amounts of wall charges to cause succeeding writing discharge and sustaining discharge to smoothly occur.
The pre-discharge induced by the application of the pre-discharging pulse 30b and the erasing of the pre-discharge induced by the application of the pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c enable succeeding writing discharge to occur readily.
The pre-discharging pulse 30b and the pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c have an inclined waveform showing that the applied pulse voltage gradually changes (increases or decreases) with time. The discharge induced by the application of such the pulse having an inclined waveform leads to feeble discharge that spreads only in the vicinity of the discharge gap 12.
Since such the pre-discharge and the pre-discharge erasing discharge occur irrespective of an image to be displayed, light-emitting of a cell induced by such the discharge is observed as background luminance and a large value of the background luminance causes contrast to be lowered and image quality to be degraded.
FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating one cell making up the PDP 20 shown in FIG. 15 and operations of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a in a cross-sectional taken along the data electrode 6 of the cell (taken in a line A-A′ shown in FIG. 16) are described by referring to FIG. 18 and FIGS. 19A to 19E. FIG. 18 is an expanded diagram showing a waveform of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a being applied during a period from a sustaining period to a subsequent initializing period. FIGS. 19A to 19E are diagrams schematically illustrating arrangements of wall charges made when a sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a is applied while feeble discharge occurs in a stable manner.
In the conventional method for driving the PDP 20, at a last time of sustaining discharge during the sustaining period, a voltage Vs is applied to the scanning electrode 9 and a potential of the sustaining electrode 10 is at a GND (ground) level.
Therefore, after termination of the sustaining discharge, immediately before the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, negative charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and positive charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10. On the other hand, on the dielectric layer 4b above the data electrode 6 have been accumulated positive charges. FIG. 19A shows schematically an arrangement of such wall charges.
While the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a is being applied, the sustaining electrode 10 is held at a voltage Vs and a voltage having an inclined waveform which gradually changes with time from the voltage Vs toward a GND is being applied to the scanning electrode 9. After the voltage having the inclined waveform has been applied, when a sum of an externally applied voltage and a wall voltage exceeds a discharge initiating voltage, discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10. Time at which the discharge starts is Tfsw shown in FIG. 18. When an amount of the change in the voltage having the inclined waveform becomes about 10 V/μs or less, the discharge becomes such a feeble discharge as gradually spreads with a change in potential (FIG. 19B).
Even at time Tfss shown in FIG. 18, feeble discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10 (FIG. 19C).
Between the scanning electrode 9 and the data electrode 6, when a sum of an externally applied voltage and a wall voltage exceeds a discharge initiating voltage, vertical discharge (facing discharge) occurs with the data electrode 6 being at a positive potential level and with the scanning electrode 9 being at a negative potential level. Time at which the facing discharge starts is Tfm.
In this case, time Tfsw comes earlier than the time Tfm at which the facing discharge starts. That is, since surface discharge has occurred between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10, discharge space is in a state where ions and/or metastables exist, that is, is put in an activated state. Therefore, the facing discharge between the scanning electrode 9 and the data electrode 6 occurs in a stable manner (FIG. 19D).
Then, after the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, charges are arranged in a manner as shown in FIG. 19E. That is, negative charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and positive charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10. On the other hand, positive charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4b above the data electrode 6. This enables a succeeding pre-discharging pulse to operate in a stable manner.
Next, operations of the pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c are described by referring to FIG. 21 and FIGS. 22A to 22D. FIG. 21 is an expanded waveform diagram of the pre-discharging pulse 30b and the pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c. FIGS. 22A to 22D are diagrams schematically illustrating arrangements of wall charges made during an initializing period.
While the pre-discharging pulse 30b is being applied, a voltage having the inclined waveform and a positive polarity is applied to the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10 is held at a GND level.
When a sum of an externally applied voltage and a wall voltage exceeds a discharge initiating voltage, surface discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10. The surface discharge occurring in this case is, as in the case of discharge occurring by the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, such feeble discharge as gradually spreads as a potential changes. This discharge causes charges existing in the vicinity of the discharge gap 12 to be adjusted. At this point, discharge occurs also between the scanning electrode 9 and the data electrode 6, as a result, causing positive charges to be accumulated on the dielectric layer 4b above the data electrode 6.
After the termination of the application of the pre-discharging pulse 30b, as shown in FIG. 22A, wall charges are arranged in a manner that negative charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9, positive charges on the dielectric layer 4a (exactly on the protecting film 5) above the sustaining electrode 10, and positive charges on the dielectric layer 4b (exactly on the phosphor 8) above the data electrode 6.
At time of application of the succeeding pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c, a voltage having the inclined waveform is applied to the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10 is held at a voltage Vs.
After the voltage having the inclined waveform has been applied, when a sum of an externally applied voltage and a wall voltage exceeds a discharge initiating voltage, surface discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10. Time at which the surface discharge occurs is Tfsw shown in FIG. 21. The surface discharge occurring in this case is such feeble discharge as gradually spreads as a potential changes (FIG. 22B).
When a sum of an externally applied voltage and a wall voltage exceeds a discharge initiating voltage, facing discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the data electrode 6. Time at which the facing discharge occurs is Tfm shown in FIG. 21.
Even at time Tfss shown in FIG. 21, feeble discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10.
In this case, time Tfsw comes earlier than the time Tfm at which the facing discharge starts. That is, surface discharge has already occurred between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10 (FIG. 22C).
After the pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c has been applied, charges are arranged in a manner that operations during a succeeding scanning period are smoothly performed (FIG. 22D). Negative charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9, positive charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10, and positive charges on the dielectric layer 4b on the data electrode 6.
In the scanning period during which discharge is caused to occur to select a cell for displaying, a scanning pulse is sequentially applied to each of the scanning electrodes 9 by deviating timing with which the scanning pulse is applied and a data pulse having a voltage of Vd is applied to the data electrode 6 according to displayed data with timing with which the scanning pulse is applied. In a cell to which the data pulse is applied at time of application of the scanning pulse, facing discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the data electrode 6 and surface discharge occurs, by being induced by the facing discharge, also between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10. A series of these operations is called “writing discharge”.
When writing discharge occurs, positive charges are accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9, negative charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10, and negative charges on the dielectric charges 4b above the data electrode 6.
During the sustaining period, when writing discharge occurs during the scanning period and a voltage produced by a charge accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a is superimposed on a sustaining voltage, surface discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10.
When, during the scanning period, no writing discharge occurs and wall charges are not generated on the dielectric layer 4a, the sustaining voltage is set so as to be a voltage not exceeding a discharge initiating voltage that induces surface discharge.
Therefore, only in a cell selected during the scanning period, sustaining discharge for displaying occurs.
When the first sustaining discharge occurs by application of the first sustaining pulse, negative charges are accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and positive charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10. Since a polarity of a voltage of the second sustaining pulse to be applied to the scanning electrode 9 and sustaining electrode 10 has been reversed, unlike in the case of the voltage of the first sustaining pulse, a voltage produced by charges accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a is superimposed on the voltage of the second sustaining pulse and, as a result, the second discharge occurs by application of the second sustaining pulse.
Thereafter, the sustaining discharge is maintained in the same manner as above. If surface discharge does not occur by application of the first sustaining pulse, no discharge occurs by any sustaining pulse being applied thereafter.
The three periods including the initiating period, scanning period, and sustaining period described above are called a “sub-field” as a whole.
Moreover, to realize gray-level display, one field being a field required for displaying one screen is divided into a plurality of sub-fields and the number of sustaining pulses to be output in each sub-field is made different. If one field is divided into “n” pieces of sub-fields and luminance ratio in each sub-field is set to be 2(n-1), by selecting sub-fields used for displaying in one field and combining them, gray-level display in 2n ways is made possible.
For example, when one field is divided into 8 sub-fields, 28=256, that is, by an ON/OFF switching for each of the 8 sub-fields, 256 gray-levels can be displayed.
However, the conventional method for driving the PDP described above has problems in that, when a voltage having the inclined waveform which gradually changes with time is applied, no feeble discharge occurs and when the voltage having the inclined waveform has exceeded a voltage at which feeble discharge has to occur, intense discharge occurs in some cases.
FIG. 23B shows lines of electric force representing states of an electric field between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10. Reasons for the above problems are explained by referring to FIG. 23B.
The electric field between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10, as shown by lines of electric force in FIG. 23B, is bending with the discharge gap 12 being centered. Due to this, an electric field in a position being far from the discharge gap 12 is in a comparatively non-dense state and an electric field in the vicinity of the discharge gap 12 is in a greatly dense state. Therefore, in the discharge gap 12, a very intense electric field is locally generated.
FIGS. 20A to 20E are diagrams schematically illustrating arrangements of wall charges produced during the initializing period during which intense discharge occurs.
In the conventional method for driving the PDP 20, at last time of sustaining discharge during the sustaining period, a voltage Vs is applied to the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10 is at a GND level.
Therefore, after termination of the sustaining discharge, immediately before the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, negative charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and positive charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10. On the other hand, positive charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4b above the data electrode 6 (FIG. 20A).
At the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, when occurrence probability of discharge has become low, there is a case in which surface discharge occurs accidentally at time being later than the time Tfsw, not at time Tfsw (FIG. 20B).
If the discharge occurs at the time being later than the time Tfsw, since an electric potential having the inclined waveform is lowered during the period, a potential difference being higher than the discharge initiating voltage is applied between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10 and, at time of occurrence of the discharge, a range in which the discharge spreads becomes larger than a range in which feeble discharge spreads and, as a result, the discharge becomes somewhat large in scale.
As described above, since a very strong electric field exists in the discharge gap 12 between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10, if large-scaled discharge occurs, the discharge rapidly progresses, leading to intense discharge that may spread all over a cell (FIG. 20C).
The time Tfss shown in FIG. 18 represents the earliest time at which such the intense discharge occurs.
Once intense discharge has occurred, positive charges are accumulated all over regions of the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and negative charges are accumulated all over regions of the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10 (FIG. 20D).
Thereafter, since no discharge occurs while a voltage having the inclined waveform is being applied, after the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, wall charges are arranged in a manner as shown in FIG. 20E. That is, though positive charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4b above the data electrode 6, unlike in the case of arrangements of wall charges shown in FIG. 19E, positive charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and negative charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10.
A process of adjusting wall charges is executed by application of the pre-discharging pulse 30b and pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c after application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, and the adjustment of wall charges by application of these two kinds of pulses including the pre-discharging pulse 30b and pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c is achieved, as in the case of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, by causing feeble discharge to occur. Due to this, though, in the vicinity of the discharge gap 12, an influence exerted by the intense discharge occurring at time of the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a can be cancelled out, the influence exerted on all over the cell cannot be cancelled out and, as a result, in a position being far from the discharge gap 12 in the cell, positive charges remain accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and negative charges remain accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10 (FIG. 20E).
During a succeeding scanning period, a voltage has been set so that a PDP operates in a stable manner when negative charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and positive charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10 (FIG. 19E). Therefore, if positive charges have been accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and negative charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10, operations of the PDP become unstable.
Moreover, in order to reduce background luminance, in some sub-fields, the pre-discharging pulse 30b and pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c are not used. This is because, ever after the charge adjustment has been made by the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, wall charges can be arranged in almost the same manner as arranged after application of the pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c. Therefore, as in the case where the pre-discharging pulse 30b and pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c are applied, operations of the PDP become stable in the succeeding scanning period.
However, if intense discharge occurs by the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, positive charges are accumulated on the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and negative charges on the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10 (FIG. 20E), and since this states are succeeded in the scanning period, light emitting occurs in a cell having been not selected, that is, erroneous light emitting of the cell occurs.
To prevent such the erroneous light emitting of the cell, occurrence of intense discharge induced by the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a must be avoided.
As in the case of the application of the sustaining discharge erasing pulse 30a, even when the pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c is applied, if discharge probability is low, in some cases, no feeble discharge occurs between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10. If discharge occurs thereafter, since a potential difference being higher than a discharge initiating voltage has been applied, the discharge is changed to be somewhat more intense than feeble discharge. Since a very intense electric field exists in the discharge gap 12 between the scanning electrode 9 and the sustaining electrode 10, once intense discharge has occurred, the discharge rapidly progresses and becomes intense discharge that may spread all over the cell. The time Tfss shown in FIG. 21 represents the earliest time at which this intense discharge occurs.
Once this kind of intense discharge has occurred, positive charges are accumulated all over regions of the dielectric layer 4a above the scanning electrode 9 and negative charges are accumulated all over regions of the dielectric layer 4a above the sustaining electrode 10.
This arrangement of charges is the same as that appeared after writing discharge has occurred in a selected cell during the scanning period.
Due to this, even if a cell is not selected in a succeeding scanning period, when intense discharge has occurred by application of the pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c, discharge occurs since a wall voltage and externally applied voltage are superimposed when a first sustaining pulse 30d is applied, which causes discharge to continuously occur even when the sustaining pulse 30d is applied thereafter.
As a result, a state of light emitting occurs even in a cell having been not selected, that is, erroneous light emitting of the cell occurs. To prevent such the erroneous light emitting of a cell, occurrence of intense discharge by application of the pre-discharge erasing pulse 30c must be inhibited.
Thus, the conventional method for driving a PDP presents a problem in that, due to the state of erroneous light emitting of a cell, that is, due to the state in which a non-selected cell emits light, an original image quality is degraded.
To solve this problem, a method for driving a PDP being capable of solving such the problem of erroneous light emitting of a cell is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-122602.
In the method for driving a PDP disclosed in the above application, occurrence time of surface discharge is separated from occurrence time of facing discharge.
However, this method has also a problem in that, if discharge occurs simultaneously, controlling of charges existing above the data electrode as desired becomes difficult, causing an operational failure to occur during the scanning period.
That is, if discharge probability is very low, when some time has elapsed after occurrence of discharge, priming particles rapidly decrease. Therefore, when the occurrence time of surface discharge is separated from occurrence time of facing discharge, which is employed in the driving method disclosed in the above application, even if facing discharge occurs first as feeble discharge, surface discharge subsequent to the facing discharge becomes intense discharge.
Thus, the disclosed method for driving a PDP cannot fully solve the problem of erroneous light emitting that a non-selected cell emits light due to occurrence of intense discharge.